The Postman Rang Thrice...

Actually, it was the postman ringing once...

The UPS driver ringing once...

And the FedEx guy ringing once.

I knew what was coming... and I was so excited when it came!

If you've been paying attention this past week, you know that my husband left me.

He went to France to work with an amazing photographer... on the beach... at a naturist place. He says he's coming back. I wonder, though. He did leave me with a pile of money and a credit card... for emergencies, he said. But possibly, quite possibly, it was hush money. Leave the wife home feeling secure and financially taken care of for just long enough ... so as not to arouse suspicions. Hmmmm.... I hadn't even thought of that until I started writing this post... 

Anyway...

He often buys things without checking in with me. Starbucks, a burrito here or there, a new wallet... a really nice camera... or two... or three... and all the crap that you need to really use a really nice camera... or two ... or three. Oh, and in the old days... all that film processing and developing and printing that went along with creating an awesome portfolio and shareable body of work. Right. 

Me... grocery shopping. New school clothes and shoes for the kids. Toilet paper. Those are the things I buy without checking in. Until this week.

Remember what I said the last time he went away?  While the husband's away, the wife will play. Only this time it wasn't playing = working out.

This time... I bought stuff.

a super sweet new camera!

A new running bra!

and a new Garmin!!!

Seven Wonders of the Boob World bra

aka the Juno bra from Moving Comfort

...in green!

I liked my blue one a lot... 

still plan to write a review of that awesome support system :)

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-TX10

tiny, waterproof, dust-proof, shock-proof, takes good pictures and video...

perfect camera for a running mom on the go!

my doodoo phonecamera will have to deal with 

its neglect issues on its own.

Garmin Forerunner 305

timing, GPS thingy to let me know how far and how fast...

no more piecing together distances with google maps or by driving around in my car...

no more gauging my pace by how fast I went from my mailbox to the lightpost 

halfway around the development...

unless I want to do it that way... 

which I might :)

Add to those super cool arrivals, my silly game from yesterday that became my all-time, second most-viewed post in less than 24 hours, skyrocketing me to fame and fortune for all of 10 seconds, and it was like Christmas or my birthday or something. 

And I'll tell ya, after getting my goodies and some attention, I feel a whole lot better about holding down the fort. Even if the attention was super contrived :P

Have you gotten anything fun recently? Do you have any of these things? How do you like it?

Remember to enter my giveaway for the Hood to Coast Movie DVD... contest ends Monday!

And you can still play the Match the Rack game from Boobs I Follow... that one ends Tuesday. There will be prizes for the correct guessers!

Rapture Run II... the sequel

In theaters and in books, sequels are often not as entertaining as originals. Something might feel a little forced or stale. This sequel is no exception to that rule. If you missed my original Training for the Rapture, you might want to go back and check it out here. Maps, pictures, video, pants-crapping, dehydration... the whole nine yards... and a major self-destruct at the end, cutting the run short. Had it been truly a post-Apocalyptic incident, the zombies/aliens/Satan would have gotten me for sure.

Yesterday's sequel proved to be boring but successful. Will Smith would have been proud. No drama...no pictures... all business... just focused on finishing the run... no distractions.

I learned from last week's mistakes... the biggie was the water issue. I went out and got one of these...

I LOVE this thing. Amphipod handheld. It was not cheap, but the moment I slipped my hand into the little neoprene sleeve with fleecy-lined snack-and-key pocket, I knew it was a match made in heaven. Soooo comfortable... I hardly knew I was carrying it even when full.

I filled my new new (!) water bottle, stuffed a few pitted dates into the zippered pocket and drove to the site for my second attempt at 9 brutally hilly miles. I made a few changes to the plan... it made things mentally easier but physically harder. I opted to do 9.25 miles... three laps plus once up the spur and then out and back 0.25 each way... instead of two laps of hills plus a longer out and back. My pace would be slow and steady... just finish... just survive.

Some things working in my favor this time:

1. it was 10 degrees cooler, 
2. there was no up-in-the-air about when I could do it so I was well-fed at the right times and properly hydrated prior to leaving the house... and 
3. I was able to take care of some evacuatory biz before leaving as well.

I tried out the new Seven Wonders of the boob world running bra in this challenging setting, too ... it seemed to work out well and was quite comfortable, but it's possible that I was just too focused on survival to notice any glitches in comfort or performance. At least none of the hikers or bikers headed toward me made weird, ogling faces so that was a good sign that bounce-control was happening.

Some things I learned:

1. Water is a good thing. I will now always bring water on runs where I am unsure of water supply. 
2. Steep hills are really hard and you run slower going up them. They are difficult to go down, too, but you can go a little faster. 
3. I hate those shoes... or maybe it was just the pitted and slanted trail :/

The best parts of the run were:

• got a tan line on my legs that you can actually see. It was still there after my shower, so I know it wasn't just dirt.
• my awesome ice bath when it was all over.
• I DID IT!  it was a huge confidence-builder after last week's disappointment. While I didn't crush it, I feel great about how I did. I tried to keep it off the clock, but well.... Suffice it to say that the numbers really didn't matter, I just used them for a gauge to keep myself honest about both effort and hydration.

Feels good to have it done :)

What does it mean when you almost 5K PR in the middle of your tempo run?

After kicking that PMS to the curb and getting more efficient support (I hope), I decided to tackle my tempo run last night...20 min/30 min/10 min....hr zones:  z2 /z3/z2 = around 141-154/154-160/141-154 based on my personal calculations.

But how fast was I supposed to be running?

I did all these calculations but don't have a heart rate monitor. I could just count my pulse periodically, but that seemed just too interrupting. So I needed a pace.

I looked up Rate of Perceived Exertion charts.... thanks, Patrick. And found that the appropriate heart rate translated into HARD. I recall this level of exertion from my rowing days... this heart rate zone we called Anaerobic Threshold, and it was my least favorite type of workout for years. It hurts. And it hurts for longer than you want to hurt. But unlike race pace, you can do it again. And now as a runner, I love this workout ... in theory.

Still needing to pick a target pace, I remembered that my blogger friend Danny at one point made a remark about "being able to repeat the workout at that same pace"... totally out of context, Danny, I know, I know... but bear with me :)

I figured that doubling 30 minutes would yield about a 10K, so I should use a projected 10K pace time based on that timed mile I ran last month. Using the Mcmillan Running Calculator, this gave me a per mile pace of 8:33 (which happens to be very similar to what Jill mentioned the other day). This made sense because a 10K is HARD. But if you run a 5K at 10K pace, you should be able to repeat it immediately :)

For some reason, I was scared. But I just reminded myself... what's the worst thing that could happen? Oh, right... I could be slower than I had hoped. I could crash and burn. And I would learn from that. So I shelved my anxiety, and I went ahead...

The first 20 minutes were completely consistent at 10:20 pace... which felt agonizingly slow... but I stuck with the plan. About 2/3 of the way through the 3rd lap I kicked into the HARD part. If you are new here, I usually run 0.75-mile laps... so keep that in mind when reading my splits. I settled into something that was slightly uncomfortable... if you can truly settle into uncomfortability. Here is what followed starting at the next lap mark:

lap #4  ... 6:28.95  (8:40 pace)
lap #5  ... 6:24.37  (8:32)
lap #6  ... 6:21.06  (8:28)
lap #7  ... 6:14.82  (8:20)
the little bit from my mailbox to a tree halfway around the block that marks 0.1 mile + 47.61  (8:00)
which yielded a 5K time of 26:16 (just 4 seconds slower than my "return to running" PR set in March)
the HARD continued for another 58 seconds and then...

I returned to that slower pace... the last 10 minutes were run at 10:30 pace.

Honestly, I probably ran it a little faster than I should have, but I felt great. I would have liked to run that last 10 minutes at a little perkier pace and with a little more spring in my step... I was having to work for that 10:30.

Half-marathon training feels so much different to me than marathon training. When I trained to run a marathon, it was all about building the endurance ... putting in the miles... and if some speed came, well, awesome. But I have picked a goal time for this half. And yes, I need to bank some miles but I also want to be sort of fastish. I'm not sure I am digging the self-imposed pressure :P

And how did the Seven Wonders work out? The jury is still undecided. It did what it was supposed to do, I think. Not so sure if it was comfortable... or if I am just used to my immobilizing, truss-like set up. I'll keep you posted.

Seven Wonders of the Boob World

After my dehydrating, heat-stroking Rapture disaster on Sunday and my Dolly-Parton-and-Violet-Beauregard-packed-into-running-bras-and-hot-pants, PMS-y experience on Tuesday, I have finally been hit upside the head with the rake in the grass that IS...

get a new running bra... or two ... or three or four.

What would it be like to run on a really hot day in just a sportsbra and shorts? I'm not a guy, so I really can't even consider shirtless territory :P

What would it be like to run in just ONE running bra that worked withOUT feeling like your breasts were a pair of tightly-bound, ancient Chinese feet? I mentioned in my Running Bra Report that I need support. I also showed you the two truss-like, immoveable bras that I currently use.

Today I explored shopping. My youngest child is now in preschool... today was her second day... woo hooo! I went to the actual, physical Title Nine store and tried on running bras... alone. Wow. My focusing-ability was incredible!

And after trying on about eight different ones, I found one that just may work :)

Behold the Seven Wonders of the boob world bra... that's really what it's called... and if I had a tan, I might even look like that bra model ;-)

I plan on trying it out tonight... in the dark just in case it really doesn't work all that well. Even though Title Nine doesn't know it, I am going to review this thing. So look out!

Do you have support issues when you run?